Sub class questions

[Master O'Laughs]

I had a couple of questions about some sub classes for narrowing down what to play next. They are as follows:

Samurai Fighter: Is it equally viable as a Sharpshooter or Great Weapon Master?

Beast Conclave (revised ranger): Between and Ape and a Giant Crab, which is either mechanically superior? Also, if only playing til a max of level 10, could I make do with just 16 Dex and archery fighting style so I could grab 2 feats as a halfling?

Thanks in advance.

[Man_Over_Game]

I had a couple of questions about some sub classes for narrowing down what to play next. They are as follows:

Samurai Fighter: Is it equally viable as a Sharpshooter or Great Weapon Master?

Beast Conclave (revised ranger): Between and Ape and a Giant Crab, which is either mechanically superior? Also, if only playing til a max of level 10, could I make do with just 16 Dex and archery fighting style so I could grab 2 feats as a halfling?

Thanks in advance.

To answer the question on the Samurai, it depends on whether you're an Elf or not.

If you can take Elven Accuracy, Sharpshooter is better. Otherwise, go Great Weapon Master.

Although I'd only go the Elf/Sharpshooter build if your front line wouldn't benefit from a heavy-armored 10HD character with a supply of THP, self-healing, and death denial. Samurai are basically Barbarians in plate, and there's more you can contribute than damage.

[djreynolds]

To answer the question on the Samurai, it depends on whether you're an Elf or not.

If you can take Elven Accuracy, Sharpshooter is better. Otherwise, go Great Weapon Master.

Although I'd only go the Elf/Sharpshooter build if your front line wouldn't benefit from a heavy-armored 10HD character with a supply of THP, self-healing, and death denial. Samurai are basically Barbarians in plate, and there's more you can contribute than damage.

100%... before samurai existed, our table used barbarian as the template/chassis and rage was bushido

Sharpshooter is better... because you just used your BA for fighting spirit and lose out on the free BA attack for a kill or crit but +10 damage makes up for this.

We had an 8th level elf sharpshooter samurai drop like 72damage in a round with action surge, elven accuracy, sharpshooter damage, and crits and fighting spirit... I'm sure there could be more damage also. Like grab magic initiate hex and cast this at the beginning of combat... you have the feats especially since you get wisdom saves at 7th.

[Master O'Laughs]

Thank you for the feedback.

Originally looking at a ranged attacker due to the high likelihood that at least 2 if not all 3 of the other players would create melee characters.

If it looks like there are more ranged than melee then I will definitely switch it up.

Currently with the Samurai, I was looking at starting with 17 Dex and Sharpshooter and picking up Elven Accuracy at level 6, maxing Dex at lvl 8.

If I go the melee route, what feat would you add? GWM @ L4 but then is there another feat worth taking, Heavy Armor master? I am leaning toward Half-orc instead if I go melee. Or am I better off just upping Con as well for more health?

[Man_Over_Game]

Thank you for the feedback.

Originally looking at a ranged attacker due to the high likelihood that at least 2 if not all 3 of the other players would create melee characters.

If it looks like there are more ranged than melee then I will definitely switch it up.

Currently with the Samurai, I was looking at starting with 17 Dex and Sharpshooter and picking up Elven Accuracy at level 6, maxing Dex at lvl 8.

If I go the melee route, what feat would you add? GWM @ L4 but then is there another feat worth taking, Heavy Armor master? I am leaning toward Half-orc instead if I go melee. Or am I better off just upping Con as well for more health?

You probably don't need the additional HP as a Samurai Half-Orc. You're already so durable that +1 HP per level isn't going to make too much of a difference.

With so many rolls for Advantage (and thus, extra chances for crits), you could do well with Orcish Fury. It allows you to, once per short rest, add a damage die to a successful attack, as well as allow you to make a Reaction attack when you use your Relentless Endurance. The extra damage means your 1d12 on a crit would deal 4d12 damage.

Resilient is always a classic.

You could also pick up Martial Adept, to utilize a Short Rest method of granting advantage through knocking a target prone.

[Master O'Laughs]

You probably don't need the additional HP as a Samurai Half-Orc. You're already so durable that +1 HP per level isn't going to make too much of a difference.

With so many rolls for Advantage (and thus, extra chances for crits), you could do well with Orcish Fury. It allows you to, once per short rest, add a damage die to a successful attack, as well as allow you to make a Reaction attack when you use your Relentless Endurance. The extra damage means your 1d12 on a crit would deal 4d12 damage.

Resilient is always a classic.

You could also pick up Martial Adept, to utilize a Short Rest method of granting advantage through knocking a target prone.

For the bow variant, would you take elven accuracy or sharpshooter at lvl 4? Basically damage vs accuracy?

The idea being the other would be taken at level 6.

[Man_Over_Game]

For the bow variant, would you take elven accuracy or sharpshooter at lvl 4? Basically damage vs accuracy?

The idea being the other would be taken at level 6.

Sharpshooter first. The Advantage from Samurai is more than enough to get the 13 on-the-die you'd need to hit with -5/+10.

[da newt]

For Melee - PAM is always a good option.

[Man_Over_Game]

For Melee - PAM is always a good option.

It's not bad, but keep in mind that you can't use the PAM BA attack on the same turns that you'd have Advantage, since the Samurai needs to use its BA for it.

As a result, you only get the BA when you don't have your buff.

Additionally, the Reaction attack wouldn't get Advantage, and the weapons you'd have to wield with PAM don't have the max damage that having constant Advantage would bring you.

[Master O'Laughs]

Being a Half-orc, Would Greatsword still be better overall than Great Axe since there is no expanded crit range?

From different threads in the past, I can't remember when a Great Axe is "better" for damage than a great sword.

Also, I was thinking of going "full damage" and taking great weapon fighting style. Would I be better off just going defense for the +1 to AC?

[Man_Over_Game]

Being a Half-orc, Would Greatsword still be better overall than Great Axe since there is no expanded crit range?

From different threads in the past, I can't remember when a Great Axe is "better" for damage than a great sword.

Also, I was thinking of going "full damage" and taking great weapon fighting style. Would I be better off just going defense for the +1 to AC?

One is 2d6, which averages 7 damage.

The other is 1d12, which averages 6.5 damage.

The 2d6 is better, unless you can find a method to add a damage die, as 3d6 is 10.5 damage, and 2d12 is 13 damage.

Great Weapon Fighting, for a 2d6 weapon, adds 1.33 damage per swing. For a 1d12 weapon, it adds 0.83 damage per swing. Honestly, I'd just go with the AC increase to be less of a liability.

Or, better yet, talk to your DM about modifying it so it's not such a bad choice. A good change is making it so that you can reroll one of your weapon's damage dice and use the reroll if it's higher, as this makes the 1d12 weapon a better choice with that fighting style (although not by much, improves damage for a 1d12 weapon from +0.83 to +2 damage).

[Master O'Laughs]

One is 2d6, which averages 7 damage.

The other is 1d12, which averages 6.5 damage.

The 2d6 is better, unless you can find a method to add a damage die, as 3d6 is 10.5 damage, and 2d12 is 13 damage.

Great Weapon Fighting, for a 2d6 weapon, adds 1.33 damage per swing. For a 1d12 weapon, it adds 0.83 damage per swing. Honestly, I'd just go with the AC increase to be less of a liability.

Or, better yet, talk to your DM about modifying it so it's not such a bad choice. A good change is making it so that you can reroll one of your weapon's damage dice and use the reroll if it's higher, as this makes the 1d12 weapon a better choice with that fighting style (although not by much, improves damage for a 1d12 weapon from +0.83 to +2 damage).

Sadly that won't be possible since I am making this character for a D&D con. But that is a good point about defense vs great weapon fighting